“Did he hurt you?” Ridley asked, since he was more fixated on the idea that Konstantin was a villain. I hadn’t completely ruled him out as one yet, but my certainty was wavering. “Did he threaten you at all?”
“No. I mean, I don’t think so.” Her brow furrowed, and she pursed her lips. “He didn’t hurt me, but he said, ‘You must leave. If you want to live, you must get as far away from the palace as you can, and never come back. And you must tell no one.’”
“Did he say why?” I asked.
“No.” Linnea shook her head, making water spray lightly from the wet curls that framed her face. “I tried to ask him why I had to leave and who he was, but he just became more insistent and said there wasn’t any time.”
“And you listened to him?” Ridley asked, unable to hide the incredulity in his voice. “Why?”
“Because he voiced what I’d already been feeling,” Linnea explained with a half-shrug. “I didn’t feel safe in the palace, and he’d confirmed my fears.”
“And you told no one?” I asked.
“No.” She frowned. “I didn’t think I had time. I wanted to tell Mikko and my grandma. They must be worried sick.” She perked up then. “Have you talked to either of them? How are they doing?”
“We were in Storvatten helping the search for you, and we saw them both. They’re doing fine.” I glossed over it. I didn’t want to share my concerns about her husband, at least not until I heard everything she had to say.
“How did you escape from the palace without being seen?” Ridley returned to the subject at hand.
“The palace has a freshwater pool that connects to Lake Superior by a tunnel, so I just swam out that way. Since no one had spotted me coming out of my chambers, it was fairly easy,” Linnea said. “Once I was out in the lake, I had no idea where to go, so I just kept swimming. Then I remembered the stories my grandma had told me about Lake Isolera, so I decided to try to find it.”
“So you’ve been out here for…” I paused, trying to remember when Linnea had gone missing. “Ten days? How have you survived? What have you eaten?”
“I don’t know.” That seemed to puzzle her too. “I haven’t been hungry. I didn’t even realize it had been ten days. I thought maybe two or three.”
I glanced out at the lake behind her and remembered a line that Ridley had read from the fairy tale book on the train. The water of Isolera will sustain all who dream of it. There was some serious magic here. Maybe it was the near drowning, but its power had begun to unnerve me.
“Did you call for me?” I asked Linnea, pulling my gaze from the lake back to her. “In the lysa?”
“Yes!” Linnea beamed. “And I am so happy it worked! My grandma had trained me to use it in case of an emergency, but I’d never been very good. It uses so much energy, but I think the magic of this place helped strengthen me.”
“But why me?” I shook my head. “Why not your grandma or your husband?”
“I was afraid that if I got to Mikko or Nana, they would mistakenly alert the guards to search for me, and I don’t trust the guards,” Linnea explained. “I wasn’t sure if anyone without Skojare blood would be able to find Lake Isolera, and you were the only Skojare I knew who wasn’t connected with Storvatten.”
“So what do you want to do now?” Ridley asked. “Do you plan to go back to Storvatten?”
Linnea let out a heavy sigh, and for a moment she looked much older. “I don’t know. I know that I can’t stay here forever, and I miss Mikko desperately.”
She was staring down at the sand beneath her toes, which allowed Ridley and me to exchange a look. We were both surprised to hear that she missed Mikko. So far, our impression had been that she was in a marriage of obligation.
“Why don’t you come back with us to Doldastam?” Ridley suggested. “Once we get there, we can contact your family and decide what to do.”
I was eager to get going, so as soon as Linnea agreed, I went over to gather our winter clothes. They had completely dried, and when I looked up, I realized the sun had moved all the way across the sky. It felt like we’d been here for maybe 15 minutes, but it must’ve been much, much longer than that.
Linnea had swum here from Storvatten, so she had only her swimsuit. Fortunately, when she’d made the trek across land a week and a half ago, the weather had been a bit warmer, but I still wasn’t sure how she had made it.
I supposed she was like my mother—much tougher than she appeared. Skojare like my mom and Linnea had to be in order handle the harsh temperatures of swimming in a freezing lake during the winter.
Ridley gave her his jacket, and I gave her my jeans. That meant I’d be venturing out in only my leggings, which wasn’t ideal, but I would make due.
When we pushed through the branches the way we had come in, it was the strangest feeling. It was almost like a dream within a dream, where even after you awake, you’re still dreaming. It was totally dark when we emerged from Lake Isolera, which was very disorienting since the sun had somehow still been up there.
Fortunately, the snow had stopped. The moon was only a sliver, but the fresh snow reflected it, making it appear brighter. Thanks to the strings and broken branches I’d left behind on our trail, we were able to make it back to the SUV with relative ease.
But by the time we reached it, I could barely remember what Lake Isolera had looked like.
TWELVE
repatriation
It was very late on Monday night when Ridley pulled the SUV in front of the palace in Doldastam. Ridley and I had taken shifts driving on the way back, the same way we had on the way there, but we were both tired and sore from the long journey. Linnea, on the other hand, sat up in the backseat, wide eyed and excited the whole time.
She’d hardly seen any of the world outside of Storvatten, and even though most of our trip involved empty roads and wide open spaces, Linnea still watched out the window with rapt interest. For what little interaction she had with the human world—when we’d stopped at gas stations and boarded the train—she almost exploded with delight.
We’d disguised her gills as best we could by giving her a scarf to wrap around her neck, and she’d worn one of my hoodies and a pair of jeans. My clothes were a bit big on her, but that worked in the case of the sweatshirt. It gave the hood ample room to cover her curls and drape over her gills.
Two Högdragen stood guard just outside the front door of the palace—a new feature since the whole “war” had started—and they stopped us, as if Viktor Dålig would knock politely on the front door if he came to assassinate the King.
One of the Högdragen was Kasper Abbott, Tilda’s boyfriend—well, fiancé now. The streetlamps made the silver flourishes on his black uniform shimmer. His black curls were gelled perfectly into place, and his beard was immaculately groomed. He stood at attention, but he gave me a quizzical look as Ridley, Linnea, and I approached them.
“The palace is closed for the night,” the first guard informed us.
“We have business with the King,” Ridley replied.
“What business do you have with the King?” Kasper asked, and he glanced away from me over to Linnea, who was still hidden in the oversized hooded sweatshirt.
The other guard glared at Kasper, and then before Ridley could answer, the guard told us, “The King and Queen have retired for the night. Come back in the morning.”
“Elliot, this is Ridley Dresden, the Rektor and the Överste,” Kasper said, doing his best not to chastise his comrade in front of us. “If he wants to see the King, it must be important.”
“I have orders from the King not to disturb him.” Elliot kept his head high and his shoulders back.
I could see this was going to get us nowhere, so I turned to Linnea, who had been staring up at the massive stained-glass window above the front door to the palace. When she looked back down at me, I nodded, encouraging her. Linnea pushed back her hood and pulled the scarf from around her neck, then smiled up at the guards.
“You
may recognize Linnea Biâelse, the missing Queen of the Skojare,” Ridley explained with a hint of snark. “I think that King Evert will make an exception for us now.”
“Elliot,” Kasper said in a voice just above a whisper. “Get the King. I’ll take them to the meeting room to wait for him.”
“Yes, of course.” Elliot quickly bowed before Linnea. “Sorry, Your Highness.” He took a step back, stumbling on the cobblestones, and then hurried inside to get the King.
“I’m sorry about that.” Kasper relaxed his demeanor after Elliot left. “He’s a good guard. He can just be overzealous sometimes.”
Kasper led us inside the palace and down the hall to the room where I usually met with the King. Since nobody had been expecting us, the hearth was dark, and it was rather chilly. The cold front that had descended upon Doldastam last week showed no signs of letting up.
Linnea shivered involuntarily, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the cold or something else. When Kasper rushed over to start a fire for us, she smiled as she thanked him, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, and she nodded and met me with the same smile she’d given him—thin, forced. There was a hardness to her expression, making her appear like a china doll.
While Ridley brought more logs over to the fireplace to help Kasper get it going faster, I walked over to Linnea. She stood at the edge of the room, her arms wrapped around herself, and when I put my hand on her shoulder, she jumped a little.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly.
“I’m just nervous.” Linnea tried to force a smile at me, but she gave up and let out a panicked breath. “There’s no going back now, is there?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
But before she could answer, King Evert threw open the doors to the meeting room with Queen Mina following right behind. His black hair was disheveled from sleep, and he wore a silver satin robe lined with fur, while his wife wore a matching feminine version. Her hair hung down her back in a thick braid, and though both of them appeared to have just been roused from sleep, Mina had managed to put on her crown and a necklace before coming down here.
I walked over to the end of the table with Ridley to greet them, while Kasper took his post next to the fireplace, presumably leaving Elliot to guard the front gate by himself.
“What’s this I hear about the Skojare Queen?” Evert asked and put his hands on his hips, managing to sound both concerned and irritated.
Mina had already spotted Linnea, gasping when she did. “It’s true.”
While the King demanded to know what was going on, his wife strode over to Linnea. Mina put her hands on Linnea’s shoulders in a gesture of reassurance, and when she spoke in her faux-British accent the way she did whenever she was around royalty, her words were filled with soft comfort.
“How are you doing?” Mina asked her. “I can’t imagine the ordeal you’ve been through.”
“I’m all right,” Linnea said, but her voice cracked a little.
Mina put her hand on Linnea’s cheek and bent down to look her right in the eyes. “You’re safe now. And that’s what matters.”
Linnea smiled gratefully at her and wiped at her eyes before a tear spilled over.
Ridley had been filling the King in on our adventures in finding Linnea, but I’d only been half-listening since I wanted to keep an eye on her. Mina looped her arm around Linnea’s waist, and they turned their attention to Ridley and King Evert, so I did the same.
“Once we found Queen Linnea, we drove back here,” Ridley said, finishing up the story.
Evert sat in his high-backed chair, and he scratched his head for a moment, taking in everything Ridley had said. Ridley and I stood across the table from him, waiting for his response.
“This is all well and good, and I am glad the Skojare Queen is safe”—he paused to look over at her—“I truly am. But Ridley, if I recall correctly, you asked to be relieved from your post for a few days to help the scouts track Viktor Dålig. You made no mention of the Skojare Queen.”
Ridley cleared his throat and shifted his weight. I’d wondered what exactly he’d told the King so that both Ridley and I had been able to get out of our duty here in Doldastam. Since we were on lockdown, I knew it couldn’t have been easy.
“I believed that Queen Linnea may have had some information on the whereabouts of Viktor Dålig,” Ridley explained.
Evert arched an eyebrow at Linnea. “Do you?”
“I don’t—don’t know who Viktor Dålig is.” Linnea shook her head. “Should I?”
“No, you haven’t had a reason to before.” Evert held up his hand to her and turned his hardened gaze back to Ridley.
“It is unfortunate that she doesn’t know anything, but it was a risk I thought was worth taking.” Ridley stood firm. “Besides, she is the Skojare Queen. Her whereabouts are important to our people as a whole.”
“My King, he’s right,” Mina chimed in. “Ridley and Bryn found Queen Linnea safe and sound. They did a commendable thing. You should not be yelling at them for it.”
He let out a sigh, then nodded. “I’m sorry. My sleep-deprived brain is not functioning properly. This should be a time for celebration.” Evert straightened up and smiled. “We’ll call the Skojare King to retrieve his young bride, and when he does, we’ll have a party in Queen Linnea’s honor.”
“Must I go back?” Linnea blurted out suddenly, and everyone turned to look at her.
“Don’t you want to go home?” King Evert asked her.
“I miss my husband terribly, and my grandmother,” Linnea hurried to explain. “But there is something going on in Storvatten. I don’t feel safe there.”
Evert shifted uneasily in his chair, unsure of how to deal with a frightened teenage queen. “You have guards, and you have your husband. Talk to them, and I’m sure you’ll sort it out.”
“I don’t trust the guards there.” Linnea shook her head.
“Speaking from experience, I would say the guards in Storvatten are rather inept,” I added. When we’d been at the palace right after Linnea had gone missing, I’d found the guards to be lazy, incompetent, and entirely unfit.
“That may be.” Evert cleared his throat. “But this is something you must talk about with King Mikko. We have no control over the happenings in your kingdom.”
Linnea lowered her head and nodded once. The last thing I wanted to do was send Linnea someplace where she was unsafe, but I couldn’t think of a way to disagree with the King. He couldn’t control the guards in another kingdom. That was up to Linnea and her husband.
“What if we send a couple guards with her, to help keep her safe?” Mina suggested. “At least until she and her husband get the situation sorted out in Storvatten.”
Evert shook his head. “My Queen, you know we can’t spare anyone right now.”
“Surely we can spare one or two,” Mina insisted, and I was aware that this was the exact opposite position she had held the last time I went to Storvatten. Then, she’d been fighting the King who wanted to send aid to the Skojare, saying we couldn’t spare anyone.
It was also surprising how kind Mina seemed to be tonight. When I’d returned a few days ago, she’d been cold bordering on mean, which really wasn’t like her. But now she seemed to have returned to her normal self.
I wondered if something had happened, or maybe her current disposition was simply because Linnea was here. I couldn’t tell if Mina was genuinely concerned for her, or if our queen just wanted to save face in front of foreign royalty.
“What about Bryn?” Mina gestured to me. “She’s familiar with the Skojare, and she’s already proven herself to be a great help to Queen Linnea.”
King Evert considered it for a moment, then nodded with some reluctance. “Bryn can go to Storvatten, if it’s as Queen Linnea wishes, but we cannot spare Ridley. He’s too important here.”
“What about him?” Linnea asked, pointing to where Kasper stood next to the f
ireplace, and he appeared as startled as the rest of us. “I’d feel better going with someone I’ve already met, even if it’s only briefly, than someone chosen at random.”
“A member of the Högdragen would be good,” Mina decided. “He can help retrain the guard in Storvatten.”
“It’s settled then,” King Evert declared, probably before either Mina or Linnea suggested that anyone else tag along. “Bryn Aven and Kasper Abbott will accompany Queen Linnea back to Storvatten.” He stood up. “Now, I will call her husband to let him know she’s safe, and then I will return to bed since it’s very late.”
THIRTEEN
tutoring
“If you’re going to represent the Högdragen, then you need to act like one.”
Kasper stood in the center of the Högdragen training hall. Since he’d taken time out of his busy schedule specifically to work with me this morning, I knew that I should be paying attention to him, but I couldn’t help but look around in awe.
The Högdragen area was located off the back of the palace, so I’d only ever caught glimpses inside it when I’d been in school, touring the palace. Attached to the training hall was a gym fully loaded with all kinds of equipment and a small dormitory, where the unmarried guards lived.
The training hall itself had less square footage than the tracker gymnasium at the school, but the ceilings seemed to go on forever, with iron lighting fixtures hanging from exposed beams and skylights above them. Tapestries of silver and black—the colors of the Högdragen uniform—adorned the walls. The floors were a glossy black walnut hardwood.
A few black wrestling mats were spread out in the center of the room, and Kasper stood on one. His dark tank top revealed the thick muscles of his arms, which were crossed over his chest. He was tall and broad-shouldered, especially for a Kanin, who tended to be on the slight side.
“I have had training before, you know,” I reminded him as I walked out to meet him. We were the only two in the room, and my footfalls echoed through the cavernous space.
He smirked. “Not like this.”
Ice Kissed (The Kanin Chronicles) Page 6
